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utilisation du serious game

Serious Game: between illusion and reality

utilisation du serious game

When we talk about “Serious Game”, we also hear about “serious gaming”, “serious play”, “gamification”, “ludification”, “educational media”, “ludopédagogie”, etc. These terms define a digital tool that is somewhere between games, new technologies and communication. These terms define a digital tool that lies somewhere between games, new technologies and communication. Researchers Alvarez and Djaouti have proposed classifying Serious Games according to the nature of the message. In fact, depending on the content they aim to convey, they can be grouped into 4 main categories: to raise awareness (Big Little Bias), to help people learn (Challenger Deep), to sell, and finally to recruit. We can see that this classification is based on the type of communication, and less on the gameplay or technology used.

Serious Game and Gamification

Gamification is an old phenomenon, already in use before the advent of video games. The term has its origins in the world of work, with its own players and challenges. The same applies to Serious Games, even if they also have links with the world of education and teaching, which influence their definition and conception.

Serious Games are produced and used by the world of work. It does not come from the world of video games. And yet it bears the same name: its “game” root is moderated, legitimized by the “serious” of its objective, making it an object that can be taken as a video game that has been made serious. And this raises hopes for the tool. It is overloaded with the power and entertainment value of video games. And yet, right from the design stage, it diverges from this, since its production conditions (budget, time, targets, B-to-B operation) are not those of a video game.

Serious Game to convey a message

Impact games need to be seen in a different light, so as not to be deluded and therefore disappointing. They are often criticized for their lack of effectiveness. And effectiveness is often associated with fun, playability and gameplay. This already raises the question of the link between enjoyment and message transmission. Does the more fun someone has, the more receptive they are? If we put Serious Games back into their context, i.e. the corporate world, we need to evaluate them according to the expectations of this universe: corporate expectations of a measurable impact.

Aude Seurrat, a researcher in knowledge mediation at Paris 13, talks about “progression processes prescribed by the serious game”. This notion of prescription is an interesting one, as it clearly reflects the ambivalence involved. And we understand the gap between the real origin and the imaginary to which they refer. The latter are shaped by expectations and carry values that consider the gameplay of a video game in a different way. At Gamabilis, one of the challenges in designing serious games is to find the right balance in the game experience, the subject of a future article.

REFERENCES
  • – Julian ALVAREZ & Damien DJAOUTI, Introduction au Serious Game / Serious Game: An introduction, Questions Théoriques, 2012, 256 pages
  • – Ian BOGOST, Persuasive Games – The Expressive Power of Video Games, MIT Press, 2010, 464 pages
  • – Tiphaine DE ROCQUIGNY, “Les jeux de l’économie (4/4) La gamification du travail”, Entendez-vous l’éco?, France Culture, 04/04/2019, 58min
    https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/entendez-vous-leco/les-jeux-de-leconomie-44-le-controle-par-le-jeu
  • – Mériem EL MANSOURI, Le jeu vidéo didactique ou serious game : processus de conception, ingénierie didactique et game design, PhD thesis, Laboratoire CTEL, Université Côté d’Azur
  • – Sarah LABELLE & Aude SEURRAT, Jouer pour être recruté, laviedesidees.fr, 03/06/2014
    https://laviedesidees.fr/Jouer-pour-etre-recrute.html
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